Alias of Jasmina Sevic, a researcher and author for Widewalls. She graduated from the Faculty of Political Science (Department for Journalism) in Belgrade in 2013.

Controversial feminist artist BettyTompkins has explored the extreme edges of sexualized iconography over the past four decades. She began working on her Fuck Paintings — an ongoing series of large-scale photorealistic images of sex, including exposed genitalia, penetration, and masturbation — in 1969. Often dismissed as too explicit, her works have been censored and labeled as pornography over the years. However, highly sexualized imagery and language have since become omnipresent in mainstream culture, so Tompkins’ work finally began getting more attention than shame. In 2003, the American artist participated at the Lyon Biennale where she received highly positive acclaim for her portrayal. Since then, she has been recognized as one of the artists at the forefront of first generation feminist art.

Betty Tompkins has been recognized as one of the artists at the forefront of first generation feminist art

Fuck Paintings

Born in 1945, in Washington D.C. and raised in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, Betty Tompkins obtained her Bachelor of Fine Arts from Syracuse University in New York. Upon graduation, she married her first husband, who was one of her teachers, and soon moved to NY. The very first Fuck Painting saw the light of the day in 1969. Using porn magazines as a source material, Tompkins depicted delicately explicit paintings of people engaged in a variety of sexual acts, ranging from activities done alone to acts with another person. The pieces were made using hundreds of layers of spray paint; the artist explored a variety of techniques to bring her artworks into being and exhibit her prolific skills as a painter. Tompkins has developed a unique body of work which included large-scale, monochrome compositions of closely cropped sexual scenes that she would become known for.

The Radical Feminism and Controversy

Controversy is a term that distinguishes Betty Tompkins’ career in the art world. Her large body of work created in the 1960s and 1970s coincided with the rise of second-wave feminism. Although part of a generation of radical feminist artists, who were not afraid to speak up, Tompkins was cast aside by her fellow feminists who claimed that pornography is harmful because it dehumanizes women and encourages sexual violence. But in her practice, Tompkins produces photorealistic, monochromatic paintings of sex, representing male and female genitalia isolated, zoomed in and deprived of identity or any other context. Although her oeuvre is not as shocking as it was back in the day when Tompkins created her first work, her direct, raw and highly detailed pieces can stir controversy even today.

From Censored to Celebrated

In 1973 – after Tompkins’ work was included in group shows at Warren Benedek Gallery and LoGuiduce Gallery, both in Soho – she was invited to participate in a show/auction in Paris, but her work was not let into the country. It was the first time that her paintings were labeled “obscene and unfit for public exhibition”. The show went on without her, and it took more than a year for Tompkins to recover her works from French authorities. In response to this ordeal, Betty continued to work but left the subject matter of the Fuck Paintings at bay until the beginning of the 2000s when she decided to go back to the theme. The turning point of Tompkins’ career happened in 2003 when she participated in the Lyon Biennale, receiving huge recognition for her work. Shortly after, Fuck Painting #1, created in 1969, was acquired by the Centre Pompidou in Paris. Additionally, she has gone on to exhibit on numerous occasions, often solo, to great acclaim, but her Fuck Paintings have never been exhibited in any of the US museums. “I guess the paintings are still considered as shocking now as when I did them”. Although much of her “no-sex” work can now be found in such collections as Islip Art Museum, East Islip, New York; Allen Memorial Art Museum, Oberlin, Ohio; and Paterson Museum, Paterson, New Jersey; only the Centre Pompidou owns her fuck painting or any of her sex works.

WOMEN Words, Phrases and Stories

In one of her latest series WOMEN Words, Phrases and Stories, Tompkins created a suite of 1,000 small paintings of words used to describe women. For this project, the artist sent out emails soliciting phrases commonly used to describe women, first in 2002 and then again in 2013. As a result, the concept of female identity has been literally fractured into a thousand pieces, which range in size from 4 by 4 inches to 36 by 16 inches and produce loose configurations of meaning among words. Ranging from “Venus”, “Divine”, and “Baberaham Lincoln” to “Piece of Ass”, and “The Only Thing That Would Make Her More Beautiful Is My Dick in Her Mouth”, the paintings reveal that women are often still viewed as an instrument of sexual pleasure.

Between Intimacy and Sexuality

While it may be taken for granted in the beginning of the 21st century that women artists make transgressive and explicit sexual imagery, back in 1960 when even owning pornography was embarrassing, Tompkins thrived amidst the controversy. She was one of the artists at the forefront of the era’s feminist movement that have altered contemporary life and changed the world. Although her Fuck Paintings had met with so much rejection over the course of almost three decades, she has remained faithful to her peculiar and unequivocal visions. Aged 70, she continues to create paintings based on the tension of intimacy and representation of sexuality.

Betty Tompkins lives and works in New York and Mt. Pleasant, PA USA.

Featured image: Betty Tompkins – portrait, photo credits – Purple

All images copyright Betty Tompkins

Useful Resources On Betty Tompkins

Year

Exhibition Title

Museum/Gallery

Solo/Group

2017

Betty Tompkins

P·P·O·W, New York, NY USA

Solo

2016

WOMEN Words Phrases and Stories

The Flag Art Foundation, New York, NY, USA

Solo

2016

Betty Tompkins

Gavlak Gallery, Los Angeles, CA USA

Solo

2016

The project room

Marlborough Gallery, New York, NY USA

Solo

2016

Black Sheep Feminism

Dallas Contemporary, Dallas, TX USA

Group

2015

Real Ersatz

BHQFU, New York, NY USA

Solo

2015

A Sight For Sore Eyes, Artsy at Art Brussels, (with Lucas Jardin)

Brussels, Belgium

Group

2015

Word by Word

Luxembourg & Dayan, London, UK

Group

2015

Viewer Discretion…Children of Bataille

Stux Haller Gallery, New York, NY, USA

Group

2015

Verganza (I don’t want to be friends), organized by Gea Polity

Milan, Italy

Group

2015

Lust

HVCCA, Peeksil, New York, NY, USA

Group

2015

Fertility, presented by Jane Kim

33 Orchard, New York, NY USA

Group

2015

The Shell (Landscapes, Portaits & Shapes) a show by Eric Troncy

Almine Rech Gallery, Paris, France

Group

2015

Eureka! curated by Kendell Geers

Galerist, New York, NY, USA

Group

2014

Art Basel Feature

Galerie Rodolphe Janssen, Basel

Solo

2014

Paintings & Works On Paper 1972-2013

Sarah Gavlak Gallery, Palm Beach

Solo

2014

Rear Window Treatment

Louis B. James, New York, NY USA

Group

2014

A Drawing Show

Matthew Marks Gallery, New York, NY USA

Group

2014

CORPUS

Zacheta National Gallery, Warsaw, Poland

Group

2014

A Chromatic Loss

Bortolami, New York, NY, USA

Group

2014

Selections from the SaraH and Matchelle Vance Waddel Collection

Art Academy of Cincinatti, Cincinatti, OH USA

Group

2013

Betty Tompkins & Dadamaino

Home Alone 2, New York City

Solo

2013

Woman Words

Dinter Fine Art Online, New York City

Solo

2013

Independents

V1 Gallery, Copenhagen, Denmark

Group

2013

Sunsets and Pussy

Marianne Boesky Gallery, Nex York, NY USA

Group

2013

Skin Trade, an in-depth look at the surface of things

P.P.O.W Gallery, New York, NY USA

Group

2013

DSM-V

Farley Post Office, New York, NY, USA

Group

2013

A few of my favorite things

CB ! Gallery, Los Angeles, CA USA

Group

2013

Temporary Autonomous Zone, 2 Erogenous Zone

Galerie im Körnerpark & Pony Royal, Berlin, Germany

Group

2013

Betty Tompkins and Dadamaino

Home Alone 2 Gallery, New York, NY, USA

Group

2013

Sex

Money and Power, Maison Particulière, Brussels, Belgium

Group

2012

Fuck Paintings

Galerie Rodolphe Janssen, Brussels

Solo

2012

Newtopia, Special guest of Kendell Geers

Kazerne Dossin Memorial, Mechelen, Belgium

Group

2012

In the Pink

Joe Sheftel Gallery, New York, NY USA

Group

2012

Screw you

Susan Inglett Gallery, New York, NY USA

Group

2012

Character Analysis

Joe Sheftel Gallery, New York, NY USA

Group

2011

Sex Works

Galerie Andrea Caratsch, Zurich

Solo

2011

Grisaille

Luxembourg & Dayan, New York, NY USA

Group

2011

Narrative to the Perverse II

Jancar Gallery, Los Angeles, CA USA

Group

2011

Invitation to the Voyage – Charles Baudelaire

Algus Greenspon, New York, NY USA

Group

2011

No government No cry, a project by Kendell Geers

CIAP Actuele Kunst, Hasselt, Belgium

Group

2010

Lust and Vice : The Seven Deadly Sins From Durer to Naumann

Kunst museum Bern and Zentrum Paul Klee, Bern, Switzerland

Group

2010

Visible Vagina

Francis Naumann Gallery, New York, NY USA

Group

2010

Consider The Oyster

James graham & Sons, New York, NY USA

Group

2009

New Work

Mitchell Algus Gallery, New York

Solo

2009

elles@centrepompidou

Centre Pompidou, Musée d’art moderne, Paris, France

Group

2009

Naked! Size Matters

Paul Kasmin Gallery, New York, NY USA

Group

2009

Revolver

COCO, Vienna, Austria

Group

2009

The Line Is A Lonely Hunter,Drawings In New Jersey

New Jersey, Basel, Switzerland

Group

2008

Fuck Paintings and Drawings 1973-2007

Lawrimore Projects, Seattle

Solo

2008

Images

Head, Geneva, Switerland

Group

2008

How To Cook A Wolf: Part 1

Dinter Fine Art, New York, NY USA

Group

2008

www.Women

Headbones Gallery, Toronto, Canada

Group

2007

Sex Works

Mitchell Algus Gallery, NYC

Solo

2007

Into Position

Baurnmarkt, Vienna, Austria

Group

2007

Le Plaisir au Dessin

Musee de Beaux Arts, Lyon, France

Group

2007

Handsome Young Doctor

Cubitt Gallery, London, UK

Group

2006

Fuck Paintings and Drawings

Galerie Andrea Caratsch, Zurich

Solo

2006

Exquisite Corpse-Cadavre Exquis

Mitchell Algus Gallery, New York, NY, USA

Group

2006

Uncertain States of America

Serpentine Gallery, London, UK and traveling

Group

2005

New Paintings and Drawings

Mitchell Algus Gallery, NYC

Solo

2005

La Beauté de l’Enfer

Galerie Rodolphe Janssen, Brussels, Belgium

Group

2004

[Untitled, Nudes]

Printed Matter, New York, NY USA

Group

2004

Nouvelles Acquisitions, Oeuvres Contemporaines

Centre Pompidou, Musée National D’Art Moderne, Paris, France

Group

2003

It Happened Tomorrow

Biennale de Lyon, Lyon, France

Group

2002

Fuck Paintings 1969-74

Mitchell Algus Gallery, NYC

Solo

2000

Egizio’s Project

New York, New York, NY USA

Solo

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